FrontlineSMS
Saving Lives Through SMS
Case Study on Startup from 2005-2012 Founded by Ken Banks | United Kingdom
What’s At Stake
Across the world, hundreds of thoureach certain segments and their needs, sands of small local grassroots Civil especially the need to send SMS to large Society Organizations (CSOs) conduct numbers of people, access the vital work in the areas of health, educa- appropriate tools to manage a high voltion, economic development, and civic ume of contacts who also need to be able engagement. Despite the advances in to send messages back, and then anacommunications technology over the lyze the data. Currently such tools exist past decade, many of those working in mostly on the Internet (e.g. Clickatell), the most resource-poor environments which is already a significant barrier in still face great communications barrimany developing countries. In addition, ers. The well-documented revolution software is often expensive to buy, may in mobile phone technology and high require a credit card to purchase meslevels of mobile phone penetration sage credits, and requires significant have introduced many possibilities, if technical skills on the part of CSOs. For only they were available to all. There is those “off the radar” and working in an increasing range of SMS based tools remote areas, the alternative is to send and initiatives to tackle communication texts one at a time from a mobile phone— problems; however for the “bottom of hardly an efficient solution—or invest the pyramid” of the CSO world, many significant talent and money into upof these tools remain out of reach and grading their systems—a great drain on often unsuited to their needs. The limited resources. Innovative technology “mobile phone revolution” is failing to is available, however, it fails to meet the needs of end users among the grassroots citizen sector.
Note: The following case study outlines the founding years of FrontlineSMS from 2005–2012.
Business Model Innovation
When Ken Banks, creator of FrontlineSMS, was first approached by officials from the Kruger National Park in South Africa to help them find a way to more easily reach remote, neighboring community members to update them about important changes to the park, he could find no solution that worked without the internet, so had to decline. He had just begun working on one of the earliest mobiles for development initiatives with Fauna & Flora International (FFI), a global conservation organisation. Nevertheless, he didn’t stop thinking about their question. In 2005, with an initial $15,000 investment for equipment, he spent 5 weeks developing a software program that successfully allowed a computer to send SMS through an attached mobile device. SMS has long been a popular means of communication in the developing world. Cheaper than voice and simple to use, it can be a powerful tool for nonprofit organizations around the world to conduct surveys, and carry out data collection and outreach. However, many SMS solutions are either highly centralized and expensive (through network operators) or require internet usage, both of which can be prohibitive for a small organization. The solution
Ken invented, FrontlineSMS, was created to tackle both of these issues.
At a Glance
The program’s interface was designed to be simple and intuitive, enabling anyone to implement a quick communications solution with just a laptop and a phone in an hour or so. FrontlineSMS can send mass messages for outreach, or receive and process incoming messages for surveys and information collection.
Revenue Model
“Innovation is rarely the discovery of a new metric, or a new business model, or a new way of presenting or collecting data. It’s the realization that a problem can be solved, and solved in a new way.” - Ken Banks For the first two years after launching, Ken continued to update and share the software in his free time - during evenings and weekends. Impact remained modest, at 100 downloads. Then, in 2007, FrontlineSMS experienced a breakthrough in its adoption. It was used by a Nigerian NGO - the Network of Mobile Election Monitors - to monitor the fairness of the Nigerian elections by allowing citizens to text any concerns about rigging to a central computer. The project was covered on the BBC - leading to an acceleration of downloads of FrontlineSMS by those seeking to apply it to their own contexts.
• Foundation or NGO grants • Grants or contracts • Earned income
Product or services sales Consulting
Innovation • Product design • Distribution
It was then that FrontlineSMS FrontlineSMS:Legal, FrontlineSMS: received its first grant, $200,000 from Learn, and FrontlineSMS:Radio (see the MacArthur Foundation to signififigure 1 - example of customization for cantly upgrade the software, and launch medical needs). it for the first time as open source in 2008. Significant grants soon also came To create sustainability, FrontlineSMS in from the Hewlett Foundation, Rocke- cloud platform uses a freemium, premifeller, Omidyar, and Google and Frontum model, offering a subscription-based, lineSMS logged over 25,000 downcloud-hosted service. The most basic serloads. Use continued to rise, seeing the vice is free with e-mail based help-supplatform adopted in over 190 countries port and enabling 250 interactions per through over 200,000 downloads. month, while additional packages shift according to the type of support, number Since then, FrontlineSMS has of interactions, and degree of customizabecome available as a cloud-based tion necessary. software-as-a-service for larger organizations or for those working in areas By focusing on building a simple tool with more reliable internet connections. and creating an enabling environment, A number of tailored versions of Front- Ken has enabled thousands of small lineSMS have also emerged - including organizations to take advantage of a FrontlineSMS:Medic (now Medic powerful technology for solving local Mobile), FrontlineSMS:Credit (now collaboration needs. Kopo Kopo),
Figure 1: Example of FrontlineSMS’s impact by customizing for specific fields such as medicine
Approach to System Change
FrontlineSMS has seen application of its software expand widely, with over 200,000 downloads in 190 countries, due to its work in introducing new resources, roles, relationships, rules and mindsets
At a Glance • Roles • Resources • Relationships • Rules & Mindsets
Data collection systems in remote places FrontlineSMS unlocks the power of data even in remote places Before
After
Resources
Resources
-Telco infrastructure (sub-par, no mobile internet)
-Telco infrastructure (sub-par, no mobile internet)
-Time and money invested by information collectors and their agents
-Goodwill of information carriers -Time and money invested by information collectors is significantly reduced -Open Source software for SMS data collection
Rules & mindsets -Only big organizations can collect data
Roles & Relationships
Rules & mindsets -Everybody can collect data
Roles & Relationships
Before After
Instantly send data to
Information carrier: e.g. patients, voters, victims of earthquakes Information carrier: e.g. patients, voters, victims of earthquakes Central information collect or: e.g. hospitals, disaster relief agencies, election monitors, etc.
Results
Central information collect or: e.g. hospitals, disaster relief agencies, election monitors, etc. Small citizen sector organizations
-Effort and cost of getting information: high, requires physical travel -Frequency of data updates: low -Accessibility: data collection in remote places only feasible for organizations with a lot of resources
Results -Coverage: instant communication now possible in rural areas, as long as they have a mobile phone -Effort and costs of collecting information: greatly reduced, physical travel not necessary to transfer information -Time to set-up: significantly shortened -Accessibility: data collection feasible even for small citizen sector organizations and those that are formed ad-hoc to react to crises -Indirect: additional data allows more effective interventions in many areas: •Political: elections can be monitored in remote areas more quickly •Medical: health outbreaks can be quickly tracked and stopped •Humanitarian: those in need of relief during disasters can befound more quickly
*This is a simplified systems diagram, and not intended to be comprehensive. The analysis uses the “5Rs framework” developed by USAID. More information can be found here at usaidlearninglab.org
The Impact
·
FrontlineSMS has been downloaded over 200,000 times by citizen organizations in over 190 countries
At a Glance
·
The team has supported the adoption of the software into multiple new fields and communities of practice, including FrontlineSMS:Medic, FrontlineSMS:Credit, FrontlineSMS:Legal, FrontlineSMS:Learn, and FrontlineSMS:Radio
• Growth
·
Until recently, FrontlineSMS had a community of over 2,500 members that lead discussions and peer support on the software’s adoption. Ken describes how this has shifted mindsets on social impact: “I think that all those things have helped inspire other people to believe that it is possible for them to do things that make a difference.” Sample impact from its application include how • FrontlineSMS:Medic (now Medic Mobile) was used to track tuberculosis
outbreaks Malawi, the local hospital doubled the number of patients treated over six months, saved 2,100 hours in travel and work time and $3,500 in costs; despite only having cost the hospital $250. The tool is now being used in 23 countries, and utilized by over 19,000 health workers
• After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, FrontlineSMS team members, working with other organizations such as Ushahidi and INSTEDD, was able to setup an SMS code for people to text emergency needs. Over 80,000 needs were texted within the first six weeks and mapped by 1,000 volunteers
• Open Source • Training/ consulting
Key Ingredients for Success
Take time to deeply understand, and connect with the problem: “We were solving a very real problem, and that’s not always the case. People don’t always think about the context of their users as much as I did with FrontlineSMS. I was very determined to help these people and build something that happened to work very well for them based on my knowledge of what life was like for them. So the tool was very, very appropriate.” -Ken Banks Collect Data on Your Impact: “Requiring registration was very unpopular among the dedicated, hardcore software development and activist community, but I realized I had to know who was using it, what for and where if I was to be able to share their stories (assuming they wanted them to be shared), and continue to add useful functionality based on the use cases, and fix bugs. Despite doing it for all the right reasons I was challenged on my approach during those early years, but stood my ground. The project wasn’t being funded by anyone, so I didn’t have donors or partners to answer to. Remaining ‘independent’ was key to its eventual success and, as it turned out, my decision on [requiring users to register to receive] activation codes was vindicated when evidence-hungry donors came on the scene a couple of years later.” -Ken Banks
Success Requires Commitment: In his time mentoring other students, Banks has seen too many times where students have taken on a project for the sake of leading a startup, instead of being motivated primarily by wanting to solve a problem - and being personally invested in solving that problem. Banks believes a part of the success for FrontlineSMS is because it: “Became a life mission that I really wanted this thing to take hold, because I believed very passionately that it was going to be useful to people. I think pretty much those things are the key reasons why it’s worked.”- Ken Banks
Pitfalls to Avoid
Rethink Scale through the Lens of Open Source: Rethinking scale was key to FrontlineSMS. “I think donors are very, very focused on scale, but I think that undermines a lot of the stuff that’s happening at a lower level, horizontal scale, as I call it, rather than one project going really big and covering tens of millions, if you have thousands of projects using a platform the aggregated total of being helped can add up to millions, I think we need to rethink how we look at scale.” For FrontlineSMS, scale was not holding the code as proprietary and needing to grow the organization by charging for services in new markets -instead, opening it up so that others could apply it to their own unique context, quickly, and at low-cost, was key to how widely it spread and demonstrated impact. Collaboration is Necessary for Deep Change: FrontlineSMS has repeatedly opened itself up for new partners and spin-offs to allow itself to be applied to completely new fields, instead of staying siloed in applying itself to one particular field, or attempting to lead all of the development by itself. It’s because of its openness to new collaborations, that it has versions in sectors as different as the law, medicine, radio, finance, education and co-working spaces, Ken explains,
“I think that’s just a few of the challenges and the problems I’ve seen, and they’re not ones that really can be fixed by any individual. I think that they’re sector driven.”We need to think of scale from the outset. We need to think about sustainability. We need to stop talking in silos. We need a real shakeup. I think we’re still not maximizing the potential of the technology, and it’s because of many of those things [lack of collaboration] and likely more.”
Easily Prevent Common Failures with the 12-Step Code of Conduct: Concerned about data that shows how the majority of technology solutions for social good have failed to scale, Ken Banks created a 12 question code of conduct, to ensure that founders and particularly donors and investors can better scrutinize what new global development initiatives to focus on, or avoid. The full checklist includes (via donorscharter.org): Preliminary questions 1. Do you understand the problem? Have you seen, experienced, or witnessed the problem? Why are you the one fixing it? 2. Does anything else exist that might solve the problem? Have you searched for existing solutions? 3. Could anything that you found be adapted to solve the problem? 4. Have you spoken to anyone working on the same problem? Is collaboration possible? If not, why not? 5. Is your solution economically, technically, and culturally appropriate?
Implementation questions 6. Have you carried out base research to understand the scale of the problem before you start? 7. Will you be working with locally based people and organizations to carry out your implementation? If not, why not? 8. Are you making full use of the skills and experience of these local partners? How? Evaluation and post-implementation questions 9. How do you plan to measure your impact? How will you know if your project was a success or not? 10. Do you plan to scale up or scale out that impact? If not, why not? If yes, how? 11. What is your business/sustainability model? Transparency question 12. Are you willing to have your summary project proposal and any future summary progress reports posted online for the benefit of transparency and more open sharing?
Acknowledgements ❏
Authored by Reem Rahman, Olga Shirobokova, Odin Mühlenbein, Nadine Freeman and Mark Cheng for Ashoka Globalizer
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Interviews by Ken Banks (FrontlineSMS), Michael Feerick (Alison), Steve Song (VillageTelco), Dr. Devendra (Aaravid Eye Care Systems), and Tristram Stuart (Toast Ale). Creative Commons creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.